Luck and Pluck

"Anything for excitement," said Winchester; "but we're so nearly matched that you'll beat me twice out of three times on those odds."

Ben did beat the first game, and the exultation with which he pocketed the stakes revealed to his experienced opponent that he had the game in his hands.

Towards the middle of the afternoon Ben stood one game ahead. He was flushed and excited by his success.

"I'll tell you what," said Winchester; "let's give up child's play and have the real thing."

"What do you mean?" asked Ben.

"Let us stake fifty dollars, and done with it. That'll be something worth playing for."

Ben started in surprise. The magnitude of the stake took his breath away.

"I haven't got the money," he said.

"Oh, well, you can give me your note. I'll wait, that is, of course if I win; but I am not so sure of that as I was. You're a pretty smart player."

Ben did not hesitate long. He was dazzled by the idea of winning fifty dollars, and his success thus far encouraged him to think that he would.

"Give me thirty points, then," he said.

"I ought not to; but anything for excitement."

The game was commenced. Ben led till towards the close of the game, when his opponent improved his play, and came out three points ahead.

"It was a close shave," he said.

Ben looked uneasy. It was all very agreeable to win a large sum; but to lose was not so comfortable.

"I haven't got the money," he said.

"Oh, give me your note, and pay when it's convenient! In fact, perhaps you need not pay at all. You may win the next game."

"I don't know if I had better play," said Ben, doubtfully.

"Oh, you mustn't leave off a loser. You must have your revenge. In fact, I'll make you a good offer. We'll play for a hundred dollars, and I'll give you thirty-five points. That'll square us up, and make me your debtor."

"Say forty, and I'll agree."

"Forty let it be then; but you'll win."

Again Winchester permitted Ben to gain in the commencement of the game, but towards the last he took care to make up for lost time by a brilliant play that brought him out victor.

"I was lucky," he said. "I began to think, the first part of the game, that all was over with me."

Ben, silly dupe that he was, did not fathom the rascality of his companion.

"I don't think I played as well as usual," he said, ruefully.

"No, you didn't. Perhaps your hand has got a little out, you have played so many hours on a stretch."

Ben gave Winchester another due-bill for one hundred dollars, wondering how he should be able to meet it. He was rather frightened, and resolved not to play the next day. But when the next day came his resolution evaporated. I need not describe the wiles used by Arthur Winchester. It is enough that at the close of the coming day he held notes signed by Ben for three hundred dollars.

He assured the disturbed Ben that he needn't trouble himself about the matter; that he didn't need the money just yet. He would give him time to pay it in, and other things to the same effect. But having come to the conclusion that Ben had been bled as much as he could stand, he called him aside the next morning, and said:—

"I'm sorry to trouble you, my dear Brayton, but I've just had a letter recalling me to the city. Could you let me have that money as well as not, say this afternoon?"

"This afternoon!" exclaimed Ben, in dismay. "I don't see how I can get it at all."

"Do you mean to repudiate your debts of honor?" said Winchester, sternly.

"No," said Ben, faltering; "but I've got no money."

"You ought to have made sure of that," said Winchester, shortly, "before playing with a gentleman. Go to your mother. She is rich."

"She won't give me the money."

"Look here, Brayton," said Winchester, "I must have that money. I don't care how you get it. But some way or other it must be got. I hope you understand."

A bright idea came to Ben.

"You can't collect my notes," he said; "I'm under age."

"Then," said Winchester, his face darkening with a frown that made Ben shiver, "I demand satisfaction. To-morrow morning, at five o'clock, I will meet you with swords or pistols, as you prefer."

"What do you mean?" asked Ben, his teeth chattering, for he was an arrant coward.

"What I say! If the law will not give me satisfaction, I will demand the satisfaction of a gentleman. Fight or pay, take your choice; but one or the other you must do."

The sentence closed with an oath.

"I'll do my best," said Ben, terrified. "Of course I mean to pay you."

"Then you'll let me have the money to-morrow?"

"I'll try."

The two parted, and Ben, thoroughly miserable, went home, trying to devise some means to appease his inexorable creditor, whom he began to wish he had never met.

CHAPTER XXXI.

BEN MAKES A DISCOVERY

Ben went home slowly, in a state of great perplexity. He knew his mother too well to think she would pay him three hundred dollars without weighty cause. Should he tell her the scrape he had got into? He felt a natural reluctance to do that, nor was he by any means satisfied that she would pay the money if he did. Then again he was ashamed to admit that he was afraid to fight. He felt convinced that, should he reveal the matter, his mother would bid him take advantage of the legal worthlessness of his notes to Winchester. He would gladly do it, but was afraid, and did not dare to admit it. On the whole, Ben felt decidedly uncomfortable.

"Is mother at home?" he inquired, when he reached home.

"No; she's gone over to Mrs. Talbot's to spend the afternoon," was the reply.